Perspective Is The Key In Disputes

January 12, 1989|by PAUL CARPENTER, The Morning Call

Disputes, even those that become bitter, do not necessarily have villains. Sometimes they are just a matter of different perspectives.

Through absolutely no fault of my own, I found myself in the middle of just such an argument this week. It concerned the operation of the Nursing Assistance Program at the Carbon County Area Vocational Technical School.

The program is designed for high school students interested in nursing or other health-related careers. The present class includes 23 girls and one boy and is conducted mainly at the vo-tech facilities in Jim Thorpe, although the class sometimes goes to Gnaden Huetten Hospital in Lehighton for on-the-job training.

The first phone call was from a woman who was very concerned about her teen-age niece, who is staying with her while attending the vo-tech school. The woman said her niece had learned that, as part of her training, she was expected to bathe both male and female patients at Gnaden Huetten.

The girl is in the Nursing Assistance Program because she would one day like to work in the clerical end of the medical field, or perhaps as a dental assistant. According to her aunt, she has no plans to be a nurse and no appetite for bathing male patients.

"We still scream about child pornography, and yet we're exposing them to that," the aunt said. With my head full of lurid images, I promised her I'd look into it.

I called Rosemary Cherba, director of the Nursing Assistance Program, and asked if young girls in the program were required to bathe male patients.

"I would not insist on that, absolutely not," Cherba said.

She said that students interested in nursing careers, however, tend not to be especially squeamish about such things and a small part of the program does include - on a strictly voluntary basis - bathing patients at the hospital.

"It is really not obscene to bathe a male patient," she said.

Most of the training is done in a classroom setting with mannequins, as in the case of CPR training. There is no demerit for students who choose not to participate in the bathing of live patients or in any other sensitive task.

Cherba recalled talking to the aunt, and was angry that the woman had complained to a newspaper about the bathing issue. No one forced the niece to enter a program designed to train nurses, and what does one expect in such training?

"My concern as a parent would be, are they using gloves, disposable gloves, for bathing patients? Now, I could understand somebody questioning that. But this program is approved by the Department of Education and through Harrisburg. It's all validated by an occupational advisory committee," Cherba said.

She then said several other important things.

"I would certainly never put anyone in an embarrassing situation. I'm a mother. I have a teen-ager who's 15 years old. I would not want her to do it if she was uncomfortable," Cherba said.

"This is all done with very much dignity and respect for people, and these students are gradually introduced to basic hands-on nursing skills. . . . We treat patients with the utmost dignity, whether they're in a coma, or young, or old."

Confronted by a reporter asking about sensitive topics involving students, Cherba had drifted into the dignity of patients. That's how a nurse's mind works, fortunately.

There were several more telephone calls and I hope the dispute between Cherba and the aunt is resolved amicably. For one thing, Cherba said she will make it clear to all students in the program that such things as bathing live patients are not mandatory.

Meanwhile, another dispute started brewing while I was talking to Cherba. If she and the others in the medical profession are so concerned about patient dignity, I said, then why make us wear hospital gowns that expose our backsides with every breeze?

"I don't know. Maybe we can innovate something," she said. "But they are practical like that."

Oh sure. The gowns are practical for nurses working on a prone patient. But are they practical for modest patients? Some of us, after all, are not all that proud of our backsides.